Rachel Weldon, Director

Rachel Weldon is a music curator, event producer, and project manager living on Anishinaabe Algonquin territory (so-called Hull). Since founding Debaser in 2013, Rachel has led the development of the organization from a volunteer-run ad-hoc collective producing DIY events into a leading non-profit music presenter with five employees. Throughout this growth, Rachel has steered Debaser to remain true to its core values of supporting underrepresented and experimental artists, offering thoughtfully curated event experiences, and promoting diversity, accessibility, and inclusivity.

In 2021, Rachel founded Pique, Debaser’s quarterly building-wide music and arts event series that takes place at the Arts Court complex in downtown Ottawa. Rachel has led the conception, development, and creative direction of Pique since its launch, supporting its growth into what is now a vital creative event in Ottawa that welcomes approximately 1,500 attendees to each seasonal event. 

Previously Rachel worked as a manager at Kelp Management, where she worked with artists Lido Pimienta, U.S. Girls, and Andy Shauf. During her time at Kelp, she also helped produce MEGAPHONO for three years as festival manager. As a freelance consultant, she has managed projects for the Canadian Centre for Architecture, Folk Music Ontario, l’Association des professionnels de la chanson et de la musique, and Artengine. 

She has been an invited speaker by events and organizations such as the National Gallery of Canada, BIME (Bilbao), Reeperbahn (Hamburg), POP Montreal, Music New Brunswick, Sled Island Music Conference, Music Calgary, Creative Mornings, Carleton University, and Algonquin College, and has served on juries for the Canada Council for the Arts, the City of Ottawa, the National Campus and Community Radio Association, and Arts Network Ottawa. She was an active member of the community radio community from 2012-2021, hosting programs on CKCU, CHUO and CKUT, and currently DJs under the moniker Pink Veil. 

Tia Wong, Operations Coordinator

Tia Wong is an artist, designer, and community organizer residing in Ottawa (unceded territory of the Algonquin Nation). Tia was born and raised in Toronto, where she began her fine arts practice. While getting her degree in public health and community services, she helped build a grassroots anti-sexual violence movement with fellow student organizers. Tia has combined her skills in graphic design and activism to work as a communications professional for mission-driven organizations across Turtle Island. She is the Director of Communications at MIX NYC, New York’s longest-running queer experimental film festival, and is a board member for the Digital Arts Resource Centre.

Nick Schofield, Technical Director

Nick Schofield is a musician, producer and ambassador of ambient music based in Gatineau, Quebec. He has been dubbed a "dazzling electronic artist" by Aquarium Drunkard and "synth maven" by Constellation Records.

He has performed at MUTEK in Montreal, The Lot Radio in New York City, SXSW in Austin and the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, opening for acclaimed artists like Angel Olsen, Hauschka and Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith. His albums have received press from Bandcamp Daily, BBC, The Guardian and CBC Q.

Nick has a BFA in Electroacoustic Studies from Concordia University and works as the technical director with artist-run centre SAW and Debaser's Pique festival in Ottawa.

Katie Manners, Programming Manager

Katie Manners is an arts coordinator and cultural historian with a decade of experience in the non-profit sector. She has coordinated programming and events for several arts organizations across Ontario and Quebec, though her love for the arts really manifests online. 

During the pandemic, she found community dancing at Zoom raves, the Internet's DIY answer to quarantine's impactful shutdown of in-person arts spaces. Her curiosity led her throughout the digital underground, where she became one of the first journalists to cover the emerging hyperpop scene in 2020. And in 2021, she founded cat scratch magazine, an online blog and ongoing archive of hyperpop artefacts that platforms queer and neurodiverse youth. 

As a hyperpop/digicore consultant, she’s been interviewed by Rolling Stone Magazine, written for PBS: Soundfield, and is currently writing a book about pandemic-era hyperpop and what happens when an online scene transitions from URL to IRL.

Maeve Tavakoli, Community Development Manager

Maeve Tavakoli is a queer Iranian multi-instrumentalist and multidisciplinary artist with a diploma from the Tehran Music School and an Honours BA in Music from the University of Ottawa. Since relocating to Ottawa in 2021, they have gained extensive experience in arts administration and project management, including roles as Program Specialist with the City of Ottawa, Project Manager with Project WARP, and Managing Director at Tone Cluster. They have also contributed to Debaser's quarterly festival Pique since 2022 through stage and conference management. Maeve is proud to be part of a support system that creates meaningful opportunities for both artists and audiences, strengthening their connection with their community through the arts.

Willow Cioppa, Harm Reduction Lead

Willow Cioppa is a multidisciplinary artist, harm reduction expert, and proud party girl. Their artistic practice spans music production, poetry, DJing, and playwriting. Additionally, they’ve been organizing events and parties for nearly a decade and are passionate about curating spaces of joy, pleasure, celebration, and catharsis.

Cioppa leads Debaser’s harm reduction strategy, including EQ.U.I.P.E., a unique and innovative team providing in-house harm reduction resources and bystander intervention at Debaser events across Ottawa. Cioppa also offers harm reduction consultations for various bars, clubs, raves, festivals, and events, and has been doing so for 12+ years.

Informed by their identity as a queer Black woman, they are driven by the desire to create environments for people to gather and dance safely among community. They believe wholeheartedly in the healing power of the club and its dance floors, and their work in community organizing, harm reduction advocacy, and raving is at the heart of everything they do. They have been taught and are guided by the queer elders to raised them to refer the magic of chosen family and collective healing.

Sarah Conn

Chrissy Love

Linh VH Nguyen

Pauline Mousseau

Brodie Conley

Tsenu Zelleke

Amy Ede

Felicity Joan Hauwert

Guillaume Decouflet

Xandria Reece

Martha Adem

Martha is a Mexican-Lebanese-American dancer, musician, and multidisciplinary artist based in Ontario. World-building and physical authenticity are at the core of their artistic and narrative vision. Martha has danced with Ottawa dance company Voices; performed under Utech Records with UXVAE; had their writing published in Folklore for Resistance and Fantômes Zine, worked as a goldsmith, and created artwork for the bands Cetacea, A Flock Named Murder, and Horse Lung.

Eli Muro

Eli Muro is a Mexican-Canadian musician, artist and designer whose work has been woven into the fabric of Western Canada's electronic music scene for nearly two decades. As co-founder of Chapel Sound, a Vancouver-based art foundation, he has spent years nurturing the local musical ecosystem through curation, event production, and music technology education with the belief that artists thrive when their community does too.

Helena Granger

Helena is a Queer Indigenous artist from downtown Ottawa. She has been working as a creative professional since 2024, creating, exhibiting, jurying, and curating. In her independent practice, she is a painter. Every facet of her creative practice has thematically centered around highlighting underrepresented narratives in fine arts spaces. She believes the most provocative art pieces often come from unconventional contexts, which is why she values diversity so highly.

Nabil Bhatia

Nabil Bhatia is a DJ, artist, and musicophile presently based in Ottawa. As an open format DJ (where he spins under the moniker nabilio), he aims to communicate his inner world and create sets that describe music’s cross-cultural journey across time and place. He draws inspiration from the mix of cultures that make him, as well as the vibrant, diasporic, and often revolutionary, sounds of underground scenes around the world.